Tuesday, 2 November 2010

Gf Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

I mentioned yesterday that at our boys birthday celebration, I made gluten free vegetarian sausage rolls for the first time. It was quite a challenge! I was inspired by my mum who is more adventurous than me with her GF baking, living nearby the my GF sister and niece. She discovered a gf pastry made with mashed potato recently and raved to me about it.

Vicki had made GF vegan sausage rolls (substituting tofu for cottage cheese and eggs in Cindy's recipe) a few months back for a potluck that I was lucky enough to attend. I wish I had paid more attention when I tasted these but I was rushing around with Sylvia and thought they tasted good.

She used corn crumbs instead of breadcrumbs and cooked quinoa instead of oats. So I decided to follow her lead but make them vegetarian instead of vegan. This worked well but my filling was a lot softer than usual, so it could be tweaked with less liquid or trying gf flakes instead of oats. She found gf pastry in the supermarket but I wanted to find a pastry I could make from scratch.

I made the pastry and filling the night before. The pastry came together in a soft ball but every time I tried to knead it it cracked. I didn't see the point in kneading it - though the recipe said 3 minutes - and put it in the fridge. I bought 500g of potatoes and ended up with about 400g of potatoes. Even with peeling the potatoes, it seemed I had lost some of my potatoes somewhere and E and I pondered where they had gone!

On the day of the afternoon tea, I was still considering rolling out the pastry when my mum and dad arrived. I suspect I was procrastinating after all the cracks the night before. My mum offered to roll out the pastry and I was only too glad to accept. It was difficult pastry to work with, especially for me who avoid rolling out any pastry for just this reason. Fortunately my mum is made of sterner stuff!

My timing with the sausage rolls was out but the end result, despite not being the prettiest dish, tasted good. It was my first time tasting this pastry and it is a good one. The raw dough was a bit sandy but the final result tasted great with the sausage rolls. Though there were puff pastry ones on offer that looked more handsome but no one complained about the gf ones. Both E and Sylvia enjoyed the leftover GF sausage rolls.

Susie enjoyed the sausage rolls but my GF niece Grace looked at them and screwed up her nose at the 'pips' (sesame seeds) and wouldn't even try them. Kids!

Ironically I have been wishing I had an alternative regular gluten pastry to make from scratch for sausage rolls. This pastry tasted good and I love the idea of mashed potato in them so maybe I could try these with wheat flour. My mum has also made it with Orgran GF flour. I'd definitely try it again gluten or not.

To assemble:Extra cornflour for rolling pastryegg or milk for glazingsesame seeds (optional)

To make the pastry: Place all ingredients in a bowl and gently stir together with a butter knife until the dough comes together. (NB I had slightly less than 450g mashed potato so I added a little extra butter.) Dust surface with extra cornflour and knead dough till smooth – mine barely needed kneading to be smooth – certainly not the 3 minutes suggested by the recipe because it just kept falling to pieces. Wrap dough in clingwrap and place in fridge for at least 30 minutes. I left mine in overnight.To make filling: Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. I made mine the night before and kept in the fridge.

To assemble sausage rolls: Cut pastry into four pieces. Place each piece between two sheets of baking paper and use a rolling pin to roll out a rectangle of about half a cm thickness. Peel off top layer of baking paper.

Spoon filling along the middle of the rectangle and then use paper to guide the pastry to roll it over the filling to make a long sausage. NB my mum has used this pastry before and still found it stuck to the paper a bit – she just scraped it off the paper when it did in large chunks. Place long roll on a baking tray lined with baking paper or silicone.

Repeat with remaining sections of pastry. (NB you could make more pastry or if like me you were catering to both gf and non-gf, you could use puff pastry sheets for the remaining filling.)

Brush rolls with milk or beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 230 C (my oven is a bit underwhelming with power so you may need it to be a bit lower) for about 30-45 minutes. At about the 15 minute mark, take out the trays and cut the long rolls into individual sausage rolls and separate enough so they are cooked all over. When pastry is golden brown, they should be ready.

Serve warm. We had some that we reheated the next night (about 10 minutes at 200 C, I think) and they were lovely.

Well I think your sausage rolls sound fab and wish I had one to try right now. The sesame seeds made them look really good too. Sounds like your mother turned up in the nick of time. I can imagine that pastry made from those ingredients would be quite hard to handle.

Hi Johanna, I read your blog a lot and its great. I must live close to you as you talk about lots of places in my neighbourhood! I am coeliac and I made your veggie sausage rolls a few months ago. Try using quinoa flakes instead of just quinoa as they soak up the liquid a bit better.

cripes, they look like a baking labour of love but the finished result looks yummy. I'm becoming more and more reluctant with gf experiments as the flours here seem so unpredictable. Luckily I'm tolerating wheat better now and super light pastries like filo are no problem at all. Hmm perhaps I'll just try your filling ..

Thanks Chucky - highly recommend the original vegetarian sausage rolls with gluten if you aren't familiar with them and can eat gluten - then try the gf version later if you are feeling brave with pastry

Thanks Choclette - my mum uses gf plain flour and I noticed her mix had vegetable gum in it so I wondered if that made it easier to handle - but I agree - rather mum than me!

Thanks K - I like to know it can be done

Thanks Lisa - it was the mashed potato that intrigued me - I wonder if it would get easier if I made them a few times

Thanks Jo - nice to hear from you - I used cooked quinoa because it was what I had about - have never tried quinoa flakes but would like to try them in this recipe - glad the sausage rolls worked for you - did you buy gf pastry or make it?

Thanks Hannah - it is the curiosity rather than courage that finally makes me try pastry - though I would recommend the hot water pastry as an easy one (though I tried it with sausage rolls once and I don't think it worked)

Thanks Cakelaw - I have hope that the pastry can be a bit friendlier than it was first go

Thanks Lorraine - despite my reply to cindy about not being one for pretty food, I love the look of sesame seeds on sausage rolls

thanks vegematarian - and you win the prettiest sausage rolls contest :-) I also thought I could do gf bread crumbs like you rather than the corn crumbs. Am sure yours tasted excellent - will be interested to hear how you go if you try the pastry

Thanks Nic - glad you are doing ok with wheat - it does seem simple compared to gf flours - I haven't found the gf flours unpredictable but they are a delicate balancing act - I had thought of your gf lemon cake with mashed potato when I was making these

Hi Johanna, I usually make my own GF pastry if its for a tart but I find the sausage rolls work better with some GF pastry sheets that you can buy at the supermarket. The ingredients are pretty good (amaranth, lentil and rice flours I think) and it is very easy to handle as it is already rolled out for you! Its called "The Pastry Pantry" and they have a web site.

Sounds amazing. I am wary of any pastry--haven't had much success--but I think the mashed potatoes are too intriguing to resist. And the filling sounds wonderful, too. Maybe your mum will come and roll them out for me, too? ;)

Thanks Jo - coincidentally my sister had some GF sausage rolls this weekend and thought them excellent so asked about the pastry and it was the same brand you use - will have to look it out. And will try quinoa flakes some time (when I want them I can never find them, when I see them in a shop I can never think what to do with them)

Thanks Ricki - I am sure my mum could keep herself busy rolling out this pastry for bloggers :-) I like it because the ingredients aren't too hard to buy, but I wonder if a little GF gum might help it stick together

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.